3/31/26 Fine Arts Department News

MIS/HPMS students who will be NEW to Band or Orchestra in the 2026-2027 school year will have the opportunity to try out instruments and make their selection on April 25th! More information will be sent from directors at a a later date. Please save the date and share with your friends!

Several of our HPISD Fine Arts Students will be performing and participating in HP Culturefest on April 18th! We hope you can come support our fine arts students at this community event!

On March 25th, the HPISD Choral Programs presented a District Choir Concert on the Linda Raya Stage. Featured ensembles were HPHS Park Version Vocal Ensemble, the 4th and 5th Grade District Honor Choir, the MIS 6th Grade Choirs, and HPHS Combined Treble Choirs, and the HPHS Lads & Lassies Varsity Mixed Choir. All choirs performed beautifully and closed the concert with a Grand Finale, performing Bob Chilcott's arrangement of "The Gift to be Simple". It was a wonderful night celebrating choral music!

On March 31st, over 30 HPHS and HPMS technical theatre students participated in presentations of their UIL Theatrical Design along with a talkback at HPMS for those students preparing for their own 2025/2026 UIL Theatrical Design submissions. Our students spent time and focus, reflecting, and refining their designs in the areas of set, costuming, hair & makeup, and marketing, covering classic literature and theatrical content provided by UIL.

Color Guard

The Highland Park Color Guard delivered an outstanding performance at the NTCA Championships, earning both a 4th place finish in their round and a 19th place finish among a highly competitive field. These results reflect the group’s continued growth, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence throughout the season. Their performances showcased not only technical achievement but also a strong sense of artistry and ensemble cohesion. We are proud of the way these students represented Highland Park on a championship stage.

Indoor Drumline

Photos below from the Houston WGI Regional Contest where the Indoor Drumline came home as Finalists in Open class! Our 7th through 12th grade performers showed so much growth during the contest, culminating in an outstanding Finals performance! Throughout the trip, our students pushed through fatigue, showed flexibility and grace , and gained valuable experience and feedback that you can only get in big performance moments. A big thanks to the parents and staff that made this possible. Their success is a direct result of disciplined preparation and a commitment to continual improvement, and we look forward to their continued momentum.

Camden Coale and Layton Braziel won the 5A UIL Cross Examination Debate State Tournament on March 22nd! These seniors are State Champions for a 2nd time in a row, having qualified for the State Tournament all four years of their high school career. The team of Emma Goga and Maddie Prawdzik qualified for the State Tournament for a second time, missing the elimination rounds by one debate. They will be returning for their senior year! Congratulations HP Debate!

The Highland Park High School Orchestra program competed in the Region XX UIL Concert and Sightreading Evaluation in early March at Irving High School. The Chamber Orchestra earned a Sweepstakes Trophy, receiving Division 1 ratings from all six judges in both the concert and sightreading portions of the contest!

At the end of March, the Orchestra program had the opportunity to travel to the University of Texas at Austin to participate in a workshop with the Music Director of the UT Symphony Orchestra, Farkhad Khudyev. Mr. Khudyev has the ability to connect to invisible worlds and bring them alive in music. Students were inspired, gaining ensemble skills and insight into what it means to be a musician. Students then traveled onto South Padre Island for the weekend where they had the opportunity to learn and make memories while touring the Sea Turtle Conservation Center, watching dolphins and interacting with sea life in the Gulf, and learning how to build sandcastles from a master artisan.

Congrats to the Cast & Crew of HP Theatre’s UIL One Act Play “The Sweet Science of Bruising” on a fantastic performance at District Competition! This beautiful play is dramatic and powerful, telling the stories of four women as they fight for their personal freedoms.

Bravo to Manahil Qureshi (All Star Cast), Justin Furstein (Honorable Mention All Star Cast) and Faith Mazzucchi (All-Star Crew). A huge thank you to Director Ms. Murphy and Technical Director Mr. Burnam for their amazing leadership!

Congrats to HP Theatre’s Esra Melech, Camille Huckaby and Sage Rockow on Broadway Dallas High School Musical Theatre Awards Semi-Finalist Nominations

We are so proud of Esra Melech (Leading Player), Camille Huckaby (Catherine) and Sage Rockow (Berthe) on their Broadway Dallas High School Musical Theatre Outstanding Lead Performer Awards Semi-Finalist nominations! They earned scores high enough to qualify in the top 25% of eligible students from 93 schools with 100 productions! Congratulations on this accomplishment!

Technical Theatre

Congratulations to the Highland Park High School 2025-2026 UIL Theatrical Design participants, receiving the following awards:

STATE FINALIST, ADVANCING:

-Senior Faith Mazzucchi with Marketing Design. Faith's design is 1 of only 15 marketing designs chosen from all 5A schools in Texas to compete at the UIL Theatrical Design State Contest this May in Austin, TX.

STATE SEMI-FINALISTS, EXEMPLARY:

-Senior Julia Kerr with Makeup Design

-Junior Lauren Tharp with Makeup Design

AWARD OF DISTINGUISHED MERIT:

-Junior Cadie Walsh with Marketing Design.

AWARD OF HONOR:

-Sophomore CeCe Hoff with Costume Design

-Freshman, Ben Abernathy with Set Design.

The Raider Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band received UIL Sweepstakes awards at the UIL Region 20 Concert and Sightreading Evaluation on April 26th and 27th. Congratulations, Raider Bands!

The HPMS Choir program took three varsity-level choirs to the UIL Concert and Sight-Reading Contest this year on March 31 and April 1! For the first time in our school's history, we brought a Varsity Mixed Choir (Pop Choir)! We also brought a Varsity Tenor Bass Choir (boys) and a Varsity Treble Choir (girls). All three performed beautifully and earned Division 1 ratings for both the concert and sight-reading portion of the contest —the highest rating a choir can receive! Our Tenor Bass and Mixed Choirs also earned the honor of a "Sweepstakes", receiving a 1 from all six judges. We are so proud of our students and this record-breaking year!

The HPMS Orchestra program has been busy! MIS 6th Graders presented their Beginner Showcase in the HPMS Auditorium on February 26th.

The Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras participated in the TMEA Region 20 Concert and Sightreading Performance Assessment this week and came home with SWEEPSTAKES in both Concert and Sightreading Performances. This means they received the highest score a performing ensemble can receive both in stage performance and sightreading (performing music they have never seen before with only 7-8 minutes of preparation).

UIL Concert and Sightreading is a formal Texas school music contest where performing music ensembles are evaluated on their performance and their ability to read new music. It's one of the most important and rigorous adjudicated events for secondary music programs in Texas.

The Raider Orchestra Program has a long history of receiving sweepstakes, and we are proud to continue that tradition.

Coming up, student representatives from the Raider Orchestra program will perform at HP Culture Fest on Saturday April 18th. Our performance time is at 1:15-1:30. And don't forget the Instrument Selection Day on April 25th for current 5th grade/rising 6th grade Orchestra students! (Info above)

Through art, students learn what it means to stick with something from start to finish—and to see it turn into something they’re truly proud of. These sunflowers by 1st graders at Armstrong, inspired by Vincent van Gogh, are such a great example of that.

Armstrong Third Graders, under the direction of Dianne Morgan, recently presented the musical "Thwacked!" which featured three talking frogs, falling skies, a King, a Sorceress, and, of course, a handsome Prince! Other featured characters included: Narrators who kept the audience involved in the story; a Mayor and Council Members who had trouble making decisions; a Tinker and Three Maids who tried to convince the town that the sky was falling; dancers at the school Hop; a PE Coach and a Librarian who led the school's Marching Band and Cheerleaders; and a budding scientist, Rachel, who finally solved the mystery with help from the Star Chorus, which turned out to be an acorn from the Oak Tree falling on Frog's head.

At the end of the performance, Principal Betsy Cummins shared the news that Armstrong Music Teacher, Dianne Morgan would be retiring at the end of this year. Mrs. Morgan has been a beloved part of the Eagle Family for many years and will be missed in the classroom. THANK YOU, Mrs. Morgan - for your service to HPISD and for instilling a love of music and performance in all of the Armstrong Eagles!

Our 3rd graders just finished up their clay unit by making fish! Each student created a fish their own way by adding different details and color using clay techniques like spheres, pinch pots, and coils!

Congratulations to all our young artists – the UP Campus Art Show was a big hit! So many big smiles and proud kiddos showing off their creative accomplishments!

If it’s Spring, it’s CLAY time at University Park Elementary! Students in every grade have been hard at work since February designing and creating their special clay creations. Once finished, these 3-D works of art were proudly displayed on students’ desks during UP’s recent Open House.

• Pre-K was introduced to 3-D art using Model Magic and other decorative elements such as pipe cleaners, beads, and colored foam.
• Kinder created clay owls with texture using various clay tools such as toothpicks & marker caps.
• 1st graders made “Taco Fish” by folding their clay & learning proper attachment techniques such as Score, Slip, & Smooth.
• 2nd grade perfected pinch pots to create the bodies of these funny birds. Students then added extra elements to give their creatures a personality followed by pipe cleaner legs & tail feathers.
• As part of a collaboration between 3rd grade classrooms and Art, students wrote Villanelle poems and then created clay bobble heads to reflect the animal described in their poem.
• 4th grade brainstormed & sketched various theme ideas before creating a low-relief clay Tic-Tac-Toe board and game pieces.

UP young musicians have been busy moving from iconic notation to note-reading. Older grades are applying their musicianship skills to Orff, Ukulele, and simple choral scores.